


Fountainhead

by Syntax



Series: 50k Challenge Oneshots [1]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Internal Reveal, Lemm knows fuck about shit about the infection, Post-Canon, Unreliable Narrator, Unspecified Hollow Knight Ending, he's got other shit to worry about, it happened and was happening and then it stopped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:40:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22236490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syntax/pseuds/Syntax
Summary: Relic Seeker Lemm was not the kind of bug that tolerated buy-backs.  Once geo passed claws over a relic, all sales were final.At the same time, the small traveler who brought him four arcane eggs had probably earned a favor by now.Maybe he should at least meet this mysterious sibling of theirs they wanted to buy back a king’s idol for, to see if they’d really appreciate it…
Series: 50k Challenge Oneshots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1627744
Comments: 26
Kudos: 353





	Fountainhead

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [For You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20155990) by [46hasu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/46hasu/pseuds/46hasu). 



> please look up sloe bugs (otherwise called hairy shieldbugs, which is what drew me to them in the first place) and tell me they don't kinda look like lemm
> 
> while the linked story is an inspiration for this one in regards to the hollow knight having a fixation on the king's idols, the rest of this story is inspired by lemm's comments on the hollow knight's fountain. with all the interest he has in solving the mystery of the hollow knight, i was surprised to not find any fics where they interact! so i decided to fix that.

Rain never stopped in the City of Tears. It would be strange if it did, since the unending downfall was where the city had gotten its name. The City of Tears And Also Occasional Dry Spells had a much less romantic air to it.

Not that Lemm really cared.

When he'd first come to the city all those months ago, the sloe bug had been somewhat entranced by the sight of it all. The rain, the architecture, the clean sloping lines running through everything. Even before he'd confirmed that the City of Tears was Hallownest's former capital, Relic Seeker Lemm would've given his left wing cover if this place wasn't a major hub of _some_ importance to the once-great kingdom. It was resplendent.

Then five minutes passed and reality started to set in when he realized that the rain wasn't going to stop and also that there were dead bugs roaming the streets in a daze that attacked anyone that got too close.

He'd gotten over the City of Tears remarkably quickly after that. Especially after he'd found out that the bugs who'd lived there once upon a time hadn't thought to safeguard all their non rock-based documents against the city's unending moisture, leading to hundreds of years of records being lost to mold and decay. Then he'd been quite put out, to say the least.

Oddly, since his time coming to the City, the issue of the dead walking the streets seemed to have rather abruptly resolved itself. Lemm had no idea why. He'd been looking out the window of his shop when suddenly the grand majority of the shambling bodies dropped where they once stood and finally decided to have a _proper death_ , while a handful of others seemed to come to their senses and go back to living like they once had been before the kingdom fell. It was all so very odd. The Relic Seeker had even gotten one or two new neighbors after the former remnants of Hallownest's elite began moving back into their old homes, much to his annoyance.

Or at least, Lemm could only assume these bugs were moving back into their old homes. It was equally likely they were moving into whatever empty homes suited their fancy now that the previous owners weren't ever coming back and there was hardly anyone left to dispute their claim. That was what he'd done, after all.

He didn't plan on moving any time soon either, even if the original owners decided to show up one day and threaten him to leave.

Lemm stared out at the City of Tears through the massive picture windows in his shop for just a few moments more, letting the white noise of the rain battering against the stone and metal and glass wash over him, then quietly went back to his work, satisfied with his ponderings for the time being. He had a few Wanderer's Journals that he'd set off to the side a few days ago to revise today, and the Relic Seeker was quite certain that two of them were written in two different dialects of the same language. He'd have to compare the two journals while he worked to note whatever similarities he found, but that was all the fun of translating journals in the first place. Lemm reached over to the shop counter behind him to get some tools—

_"Ah!"_

Then nearly jumped out of his own carapace at the sight of a bug standing in his shop that he hadn't heard come in.

Nearly, because this was not the first time this exact same bug had decided to come by unannounced.

The Relic Seeker felt equal parts excitement and irritation well up in him as he took in the sight of his visitor. He knew that blank mask and empty stare anywhere.

An unusually small bug stood in front of the shop counter, a tattered cloak around their shoulders and an unusually ornate nail along their back. This was the little wanderer that had brought him four void eggs— _four of them! Oh, his fellow Relic Seekers had been so jealous when they'd gotten the news_ —and a host of other relics from all over the kingdom. They'd never told him their name, and they had an annoying habit of making him do all the talking during the relic-selling transactions, but Lemm could not deny this odd little bug had done wonders for his collection.

He could do worse. He _had_ done worse, in the past, before he'd come to Hallownest.

If he were the sort of bug for that sort of thing, Lemm might have even considered this one a friend.

"I suppose you have something to sell me?" the sloe bug asked, sliding back up to the (once immaculately glossy) counter rather than his work desk just behind it. He left the stone journals where they were on his desk, significantly less interested in going through them again now that there was the chance for something new to sink his mandibles into.

The wanderer shook their head. Ah. Disappointing.

"No? I'm not sure what you came here for then, unless simply to escape the rain."

For a short moment the wanderer tilted their head in apparent thought, just a little. As if they were wondering how to best proceed.

Then they started putting geo on the counter.

Lemm's mind was already screaming _NO_ the second he realized what the small bug was trying to accomplish, but some part of him held out until the last cluster of fossils was placed on the counter so he could see just what treasure the wanderer was trying to buy back. He counted up the total wordlessly.

Eight hundred geo. The only thing he paid that much for were idols made in the likeness of the Pale King.

"Absolutely not," Lemm said.

The small wanderer shook their head.

"I mean it," Lemm said. "All sales are final. It's not my problem if you have seller's remorse. Go find another King's Idol if you want one so bad, I'm sure there's bound to be more than just the few you've sold to me lying around in this ruined kingdom."

The wanderer again shook their head.

So there were no more idols then? Lucky Lemm, his collection would be much more valuable then.

None of that joy, small though it was, made it to the sloe bug's expression. He leaned harder on the counter tops, resting his head in his claws as he looked at the perpetually enigmatic wanderer.

"What do you even _want_ a King's Idol for anyway? They don't have much practical use aside from maybe using the prongs at the top as makeshift cutlery, and even that would be a waste. If you want an image of the Pale King so badly, just raid one of the nearby apartments for a bust or something."

The wanderer shook their head for a third time, somewhat more fiercely than the other two.

Lemm shifted his position and started rapping his claws along the lacquered counter top. He didn't say anything for a few moments. If the wanderer were a normal bug, the Relic Seeker imagined they would be fidgeting right now, but the strange little bug before him was just as inscrutable as ever.

"Are you going to say anything this time, or are you just going to stare at me like always?" Lemm said, somewhat wistfully.

Now _that_ got a reaction. The wanderer pulled a mess of parchment out from somewhere in their tattered little cloak—Lemm didn't know what it was but the brief glimpses of irregularly shaped passages and long rectangles had him certain it was a map of some kind—then pulled out a pen and some kind of ink and started scribbling on the back of the parchment. The sloe bug found himself mildly surprised that the wanderer knew how to write at all, as well as at least mildly irritated that they apparently hadn't thought to do so in order to keep Lemm from having to guess what they were thinking all the time.

His only indication that the wanderer was done writing was the sheet of parchment being unceremoniously shoved into his face. Lemm (perhaps less than gently) moved the wanderer's claws away from the sheet so that he could pull it back far enough to actually read.

It both was, and strangely wasn't a surprise that the script found on the parchment was an ancient dialect he'd only seen on the kingdom's old waystones. There were only two words written on the parchment, but it took him a few moments to translate the old characters.

_For sibling._

Lemm felt himself blink more than he actually processed doing it.

He reread the words for a bit, getting a little closer to comprehending them each time. So they had a family then? A brother, sister, both, neither, Lemm didn't really care for the specifics. But they were apparently close enough that the wanderer saw fit to get a gift for them, and they were... apparently interested in relic seeking...

Oh gross, now he was _feeling things._

Lemm's own first relics had been gifted to him as a larva, so the thought of being the bug who kickstarted another Relic Seeker's collection made some part of him he preferred not to think about feel all warm and fuzzy inside like it'd suddenly turned into heated cloth or rotting moss. He felt grand and charitable and good-hearted and it was for that exact reason that the next words that came out of his mandibles were—

"No. Absolutely not. If you don't have anything to sell me, then get out of my store."

Charity was lethal in this kind of work. You can't build a collection by giving all your pieces away to every starry-eyed bug with big dreams and a future that crosses your path. It they want relics that badly they can find their own.

The strange little wanderer continued to stare at him, as if he'd not said anything at all, then scooped up all their geo and stored the loose currency somewhere in their cloak. They then headed for the door, a few glowing flies following after them carrying any errant fossils that hadn't made it into the cloak.

Good. Good riddance, Lemm might even say. Potential or not, the Relic Seeker didn't do friends, especially not friends that wanted to separate him and his collection.

Then again...

Friend or not, this was the same wanderer that had nearly doubled the size of Lemm's collection in only a few short months, and brought him not one, not two, but _four_ void eggs. Lemm didn't play favorites and he certainly didn't give favors, but even he was aware that he owed a significant amount of gratitude to this weird little bug by now.

Said bug was about halfway to the door.

It was one King's Idol. The sloe bug had like eight of them, at the very least. Every single one of them had already been studied and cataloged down to the most minute detail. Every single one of them had been brought to him by the wanderer. He didn't have a use for them as anything other than portable references to be used against each other. Giving up even one of them wouldn't kill him. He—

Three-quarters.

He just—

Seven eights.

The Relic Seeker sighed. Oh he was going to regret this.

"Wait," Lemm called.

The small wanderer stopped walking. Their tiny claws were already gripping the door handle, but they turned their head to look at him all the same. Something inside Lemm shriveled under the scrutiny of the wanderer's empty gaze. No sense in backing out now.

"I—" he started, "Look, I'm not promising anything but if this sibling of yours wants an idol so badly, they could at least have the courtesy to come see me themself so I know they'll appreciate it properly. These relics aren't just the same as any old sculpture you could get diving through the city sewers, they need specialized care to maintain."

The wanderer didn't respond in any way that Lemm could decipher, but he wasn't going to stop until he'd said his piece.

"But, since I'm feeling particularly _generous today_ —" the thing inside him soared at that word and Lemm had to repress the urge to throw up— "I'll just overlook that slip up and go see them myself. No sense in letting a perfectly good potential Relic Seeker fall to the wayside just because they could use some extra manners."

Gods know he'd be one to talk on that subject.

The wanderer seemed to ponder his words, turning their head this way and that.

Then they opened the door and disappeared down the hallway of the rain-beaten tower.

Lemm felt himself deflate at the sight.

He didn't even know why. On paper this was exactly what he'd wanted: to convince the little bug to leave so that he wouldn't have to part with some of his collection. Sure, whatever fuzzy thing had overtaken his insides wasn't happy about missing out on the chance to do something "nice", but at least he could point at the empty doorway and say he tried.

By the time Lemm got up to close the door though (grumbling all the way, naturally), the wanderer's face had peeked back into the empty frame.

He stared at the little bug's blank white mask, confused.

The wanderer made a 'come here' motion with their claws and once again disappeared down the hallway.

Lemm paused only long enough to grab an umbrella before following suit.

For reasons the Relic Seeker did not understand, there were no stairs in the City of Tears, or at least not inside any of the buildings. He had to wonder what fool of a civil engineer thought that up. Someone more interested in aesthetics than sense, probably. Stairs? Oh no, bugs don't need stairs, not when they have elevators that will surely never break or fail or need repairs in order to be usable, and they especially don't need any protective railings to prevent bugs from falling on top of the decorative _nail-sharp iron spikes_ that every elevator in the city comes equipped with.

Whoever they were, Lemm was glad they were probably dead like the rest of their kingdom. He had to hand it to them though, the elevators were remarkably resilient, though not so much so that Lemm still didn't stop his companion from trying to strike the internal controls with their nail instead of just pulling on it like a sensible person.

They exited the tower a short ride later. Lemm paused in the doorway just a moment to open up his umbrella while the wanderer darted forth into the street without a care in the world for the rain already soaking their cloak and carapace down to the ganglion. The little bug abruptly turned this way and that, searching for something that Lemm couldn't see with increasingly visible agitation.

Lemm ran a claw through his beard. "Looking for something? Don't tell me you left this sibling of yours to stand out in the rain while we talked."

The wanderer did not answer. Not verbally anyways. They turned in the direction of the Hollow Knight's fountain and started sprinting.

"What?! Hey, I did not agree to running!" Lemm shouted, chasing after the odd bug anyways.

It was only a short distance between the fountain and his residential tower, but the distance was not short enough that a few minutes of trying to keep up with the little wanderer dashing through the city like a bug possessed didn't leave Lemm _absolutely soaked_. Between the perpetual rain and the puddles splashed up by the two running bugs his umbrella was practically useless. Ugh. If he got sick after this Lemm was never doing anyone any favors ever again.

The wanderer skipped to a stop just beyond the fountain—actually _skidded_ , like some kind of miniature stag—sending an enormous wave of street water splashing against Lemm's poor, soaked body. He gagged and sputtered at the sudden rush of water.

"Why you—!"

The wanderer stood staring at some kind of tacky lamp post erected near the fountain (which Lemm was absolutely going to complain about after he finished giving the little bug a piece of his mind since it was tacky and unnecessary and completely blocking his view of the fountain's statues) and did not seem to pay attention to the Relic Seeker at all as he marched over to the little bug's position.

"Okay, now look here," Lemm started, "I may have followed you out of the goodness of my heart, but that does not mean that you can go running out into the street without giving me any sign as to _why_ you want me to go there, especially not if you get me soaked in the process! What if I had been carrying that King's Idol with me? All this rainwater couldn't possibly be good for its maintenance, even ignoring the possibility that I could've slipped and dropped it in the street!"

The wanderer continued staring, not even giving Lemm an indication that they heard what he was saying.

"Are you listening to me? What are you even staring at?!"

He followed the wanderer's gaze upwards—

And felt a sudden cold overtake him that he knew, deep in his shell, had nothing to do with the rain.

That was not a lamp post. That was an exceptionally tall bug standing in front of the Hollow Knight's Fountain. Moreover, he knew exactly what bug it was.

It was kind of hard not to recognize them when he'd seen their mask carved in stone countless times since coming to the City of Tears.

The Hollow Knight gazed at the fountain that bore their likeness with an inscrutable thought. They turned halfway around when the wanderer took another step forward.

The little bug took a few more steps in front of Lemm and started gesturing towards the Hollow Knight with its claws in an odd and impatient manner. And Lemm did mean _odd._ The Relic Seeker had come across a few different forms of sign language in his travels, and none of them looked as frenetic and exaggerated as whatever nonsense the bug before him was using. He watched the odd display in complete confusion for a few seconds, eyes flicking from the wanderer to the Hollow Knight and back again, before a sudden, insane realization struck him like a blow to the head.

Oh.

Oh wait.

Was _this_ the sibling that wanted the King's Idol?

That was. A deeply strange thought. Lemm didn't like how much sense it made, either.

Watching the two strange bugs interact, it was hard for Lemm _not_ to notice how many little similarities there were between them. Completely black carapaces, masks that go all the way around the head, those odd fluttering cloaks... Neither one of them were talking despite clearly being engrossed in some kind of conversation, communicating with some strange mix of blank stares and complicated hand gestures.

No wonder he'd thought the small wanderer looked so familiar when they'd first come to his shop. He saw the likeness of their elder(?) sibling every day when he looked out his shop window.

Lemm didn't really know what to do in this situation. So he just did what he normally did: hang back and examine the relics, of which the Hollow Knight was certainly an interesting specimen.

Now that he was looking at them more closely (In the actual chitin no less! Living history and Lemm could just walk right up and touch them if he so wanted!), the sloe bug noticed a few differences between the living Hollow Knight and their stone counterpart. They wore no armor that he could see, for one, though they did carry a massive nail strapped to their back. Their cloak was tattered and torn rather than full and voluminous like the cape the statue was depicted with. They bore less fractures than their stone counterpart, but there was a crack in their mask deep enough to make Lemm wince, and upon closer inspection they seemed to be missing an arm.

Lemm had to wonder if the Hollow Knight's mysterious "sacrifice" was to blame for their poor state. He could hardly think of what else might pose a danger to so clearly formidable a bug.

He had to wonder what the Hollow Knight (Was their sibling also a knight? Wasn't knighthood usually hereditary?) even wanted with a King's Idol to begin with. Was there a connection they had to the Pale King? Did the Hollow Knight receive an idol before being sacrificed and want to see if Lemm had it? Did they feel they had earned one through whatever was supposed to ensure Hallownest "lasts eternal?" Lemm had no idea.

The two siblings seemed to reach some kind of consensus, and turned to face the lone observer of their wordless conversation.

"Um..."

He stepped forward awkwardly, feeling a sudden kinship with all the relics he'd examined before under so watchful of an eye as the wanderer and the Hollow Knight gazed at him in what Lemm could only guess was some kind of expectation.

An expectation for what exactly? The relic? A deal? An explanation?

He decided on an introduction, first and foremost.

"I am Relic Seeker Lemm," Lemm said, painfully aware of how unprofessional he must look standing sopping wet in the rain. The umbrella was helping keep more of the city's rainwater from drenching him from tarsal to tip, but it didn't do anything to protect from the water that had already gotten all over him. "I travel to various kingdoms and countries to collect relics of the past and study them. For the past several months I have been studying the relics of Hallownest."

 _With the help of your sibling_ , he neglected to say. Partly out of pride and partly because he had a decent suspicion that the Hollow Knight already knew that fact.

Lemm continued on undaunted.

"It has come to my attention that you want one of the relics that have entered my possession since coming to Hallownest," he said, again neglecting to mention the wanderer's involvement in either of those things, "Though I imagine considering the age of the statuary behind you that what is a relic to me now was once utterly contemporary for you back in Hallownest's heyday."

"Now I don't—

_Sell things, do buybacks, give favors, play favorites, make friends—_

"—Normally meet with people outside of my shop, but, ah. I highly doubt that you would be able to fit inside, so for this once I will make an exception."

That was a lie. With all that the Relic Seeker stood to learn from the Hollow Knight, Lemm would probably make an exception every time the impossibly tall bug decided they needed something from him.

"So," Lemm said, taking a few steps forward, "Before I say anything else, allow me to make some assurances. These relics need specialized care, and specialized conditions in order to stay pristine. Should I provide you with one of the King's Idols in my collection, are you willing to do what it takes to maintain it?"

The Hollow Knight nodded.

"Are you willing to provide a constant temperature and moisture level, making sure that it remains in optimal conditions, even if it means checking multiple times per day, every day, for the entire time that such a relic is in your possession?"

The Hollow Knight nodded again.

"Are you willing to guard the relic with your life? Safeguard it from any harm, intentional or accidental, knowing that should it get damaged it can never be replaced, or repaired to the same state it was once in?"

The Hollow Knight nodded for a third time, and Lemm could swear there was some tension in the large bug's body. How curious.

It occurred to him that perhaps guarding a relic was not very different than guarding a king, especially if the relic in question was made in the likeness of one. There had been no records he could find of any of the Pale King's knights being so close to him, especially not the Hollow Knight, so why—?

His eyes caught another glimpse of the fountain. Ah. That might be it. One tends to need to know someone first in order to have something carved in their likeness. Perhaps there had been some relationship between them, another of the Hollow Knight's secrets that had been lost to time. Lemm could already anticipate finding out just what else had been lost, with nothing but a statue and a plaque to signify it had ever existed at all.

He could, but he had more important things to consider right now.

The sloe bug shifted his umbrella from one hand to the other, using his free claws to run through his beard. While obviously no beginning collector could be completely trusted, especially when they learned that keeping relics was a significantly more intensive practice than originally anticipated, the silent bug had not hesitated at all when asked to essentially dedicate the rest of their life to the relic. That was more than Lemm had seen demonstrated from some of his actual colleagues, much less someone completely inexperienced with the practice.

Then again, considering his earlier comparison, it might not be completely fair to call the Hollow Knight inexperienced at all. It might even... be more ideal than...

Lemm closed his eyes and let the thought trail off. Yep. There it was. There was the regret. He suppressed the need to sigh.

"Fine," he said eventually.

The sloe bug _felt_ the wanderer's excited reaction more than he actually saw it. A small body collided with his thorax, momentarily knocking all the breath out of the Relic Seeker. He opened his eyes to find the wanderer hugging him tightly. Their mask was empty as always, but their posture radiated emotion. The warm and fuzzy feeling came back with a vengeance greater than Lemm had ever thought possible.

"Oh, okay, okay, that's enough," Lemm said, shoving the small arms away from his body as quick as he could before the taller of the two siblings could get any ideas. "Look I'll just... Head back to the shop and get the idols out of storage. You can pick whichever one of them suits you best. Just don't do that again."

He'd have a lot of work to do once the idols were out of storage, too. There'd be new marks or scuffs to look for, last-minute observations to make, documents to update...

Something brushed against his claws.

Lemm looked down, finding the wanderer (if the Hollow Knight had a name then he should really learn what this one's was) pressing a clump of geo into his hands. What on—?

Oh, right. Money was usually exchanged for goods and services.

"Ah..."

Lemm was... Somewhat at a loss here, now.

He'd never made a sale before and had always been deeply proud of that fact. Never given away history for coin. Never trusted a stranger with his work. Never diminished his collection, not like other Relic Seekers he'd met.

( _His own first relics had been—_ )

He could take the money. Mark it down in his books like every other transaction he'd ever made and just move on with his life.

He could.

He could ask for a trade. Offer the King's Idol in exchange for whatever the Hollow Knight could tell him about the kingdom's past, about themself, about their sacrifice. The Hollow Knight was one of the biggest mysteries he'd ever encountered in the kingdom, along with the Five Great Knights and the disappearance of the White Palace. Surely an exchange of information would be sufficient for the relic—it wasn't like the wanderer had any other choice but to accept whatever offer Lemm gave them.

He could do that too.

But for some reason—some warm, fuzzy, illogical reason deep in his thorax that the sloe bug couldn't wait to spend the rest of his life ignoring—Lemm didn't really want to do either of those.

He'd heard it said once, while he was traveling the world looking for relics to add to his collection, that for all the good Relic Seekers did in preserving and recovering history, it was the descendants of that history that the relics they collected truly belonged to. That for all the research and decoding that the Relic Seekers did, the relic's history was the _people's_ history, and the people breathed new life into what would otherwise be dead stone and metal. They looked after their own, he'd heard it said. They deserved their own. And any good Relic Seeker should know to respect that.

He'd never really put much faith into those words, far too cynical about the average bug's ability to care for something so ancient or the modern bug's ability to care at all. But these two...

"No charge," Lemm settled on eventually. "Consider it a gift. From one friend to another."

These two felt less like giving up a part of his collection, and more like putting it back where it belonged.


End file.
